After openly asking this question, I’ve determined that I don’t cry as much as most people I know. Even in some really terrible instances I tend to bottle things up, and let them simmer. As a society we tend to discourage emotions that we deem to be negative such as anger and sadness. I’m trying to observe them as part of the human experience. It’s okay to be angry, and it’s okay to be sad. Sometimes we just need to allow ourselves the opportunity to fully experience these emotions, and perhaps learn more about ourselves. Thanks to some broody YouTube recommendations, I’ve compiled a playlist of songs that are appropriate for when you just need a good cry.

Birdy “Skinny Love”

Let’s start out slow. Birdy’s rendition of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love is enough to give you some major feels. The lone piano accompaniment gives the song an eerie quality. Listen to the lyrics and see the song in its true light. Tell me you don't shudder while listening to, “Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer.”

Tracy Chapman “Fast Car”

Where do you start? Two people with troubled pasts leave everything behind on the one notion that they belong. Only in that moment does everything feel okay. They start from nothing only to find that love isn’t enough. They end up just as broken and angry as their families. Is there hope for any of us? Is happiness chasing that one emotional high, and being distracted from all the others along the way?

Labrinth “Jealous”

This song is true musical poetry. Sometimes we find beauty in tragedy. Labrinth spelled out all the unforgivable things that we as humans feel, such as jealousy. It’s not fair. We don’t always make the right decision. It’s easy to become obsessed with a person, or a notion, that’s slipped through our fingers. Whether you can relate or not, it doesn’t take any level of empathy to feel that sick feeling in your stomach over these words. It’s not guilt. It’s the acknowledgement of art.

U2 “Every Breaking Wave”

This is literally the only song I like from U2. Somehow, all the analogies of sailors and dogs and water make sense. Maybe I was an Irish pirate in a past life. I feel that it represents the inner turmoil of a struggle with fate, such as being caught up in a tide.

Pearl Jam “Black”

He’s lost his whole sense of purpose and hasn’t come to terms with his reality, full of rage. He's chosen a stagnant life of pain, pining for what was and what can never be.

David Gray “This Year’s Love”

If you’ve made it this far, you might want to turn back now. I heard this song in the film Crazy/Beautiful. If you see the DVD lying around the house, destroy it. Burn all the copies. Both the movie and the song made me want to lay down in a sad puddle and take a nap for thousands of years. It has the foreboding feeling of seeing the end at the beginning, and carrying baggage associated with love and pain.

Regina Spektor “Samson”

I imagine that this is a common fear for many of us, to be totally and utterly forgotten. Anyone familiar with Samson and Delilah knows the story of how the strong Samson was brought to ruin. The song is told from the perspective of someone supposedly in a love with Samson, repeating, “I loved you first.” Even though history had completely forgotten their story, she was able to tell her tale of a love forgotten by time.

Johnny Cash “Hurt”

Though originally written by Nine Inch Nails, Cash managed to turn it into his own masterpiece. It begins with stated confessions of pain being a sign of life. I think that with the way we typically view the elderly, we are not expecting confessions such as this. We want them to offer some sort of embellished life lesson, and tell us that everything is okay. At the same time, Johnny represents the oracle that has had a lifetime of battling demons. The video shows broken achievements, spoils of a feast. In a sense, it’s a broken-hearted goodbye letter looking mortality dead in the face.

You okay there?